Help me settle a discussion on this topic. Everywhere I look, within my company's internal documents as well as documents from other companies, a "personal use" program is not hyphenated. A colleague of mine believes it should be hyphenated, and is under that impression thanks to the AP Style Guide's rule on compound modifiers used as an adjective:
"When a compound modifier — two or more words that express a single
concept — precedes a noun, use hyphens to link all the words in the
compound except the adverb very and all adverbs that end in -ly: a
first-quarter touchdown, a bluish-green dress, a full-time job, a
well-known man, a better-qualified woman, a know-it-all attitude, a
very good time, an easily remembered rule."
This seems like a "substitute teacher" issue to me. "Personal" is an adjective and "use" is a noun. That would make this a compound noun and not require a hyphen, right? Or sort of right?
Can someone clear this up for me?
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